megrahi. sources telling the wall street journal there was no consensus among specialists treating al megrahi that he had only three months left to live. instead that determination came from one doctor running scotland s prison health service. one doctor is apparently all it took to get al megrahi freed on humanitarian grounds last august. the convicted terrorist killed 270 people on that pan am flight 22 years ago. right now al megrahi is home in libya with his family one year after that prison doctor concluded that he just had three months to live. our homeland security correspondent jeanne meserve is tracking these new developments and joins us live from d.c. this morning. jean, there has been a lot of speculation that there may have been something more behind megrahi s release. reporter: that s right. he was the only man ever convicted in connection with the lockerbie bombing which of course was one of the most horrific acts of terrorism ever perpetrated. many of th
they ll work hard, they ll contribute to their community. now, we have got to deal with the deficit, but the notion that the $34 billion we re talking about today in unemployment compensation is going to rank with the $3.28 trillion that these bush tax extensions will cost the country, it s not even apples and oranges. and yet glibly and ideologically, we can t pay for tax cuts. and yet, the deficit is the most important problem we face. it doesn t make sense, and it particularly doesn t make sense to americans who are out there desperately looking for work. now, again, when you look at where this deficit came from, i remember in the 1990 s when we stood up as democrats without any republican help and passed an economic program that resulted in not only deficit reduction but a surplus, not only economic growth but strong employment growth through the 1990 s. and when president george w. bush took office, he was looking at a significant projected surplus. he was looking at sol
our washington post reporter called today top-secret america hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. after nine years of unprecedented oversight. 1900 private companies work on counter-terrorism. some 10,000 locations across the united states. an estimated four under and 54,000 people old top-secret security clearances. 33 building complexes, top- secret, they have been built since 911, 2001, 51 federal organizations and military commands operating in 15 u.s. cities track the flow of money to end from terrorist networks. analysts that makes sense of documents foreign and domestic share their judgment by sharing intelligence reports every year. the volume is so large that many are routinely given more. michael, republican line, houston, texas, good morning. caller: the size of the government is overthrown. the second point i would make about the topic, after the 1980 the growth of the intelligence community leading into the 1990 s for the democratic party w
for republicans, 202-737-0001. for independents, 202-628-0205. please allow 30 days between your calls. you can send us a twitter message at twitter.com/c-spanwj if you would like, or send us an e-mail at journal@c-span.org. how old is too old when it comes to being in congress? only death can usually break an elderly or incapacitated politicians hold on his seat, but senator byrd s decline raised an uncomfortable question. household is too old? in one of his last visits to the senate, senator byrd was propped up by two aides. his hand shook and wobbled. there is a culture of protection amongst elderly lawmakers as they insist that they are more powerful and elderly than heather, than ever, hanging onto their seats. i am doing my job much better than 10 years ago for being senior. presidents are responding to me better, said former house ways and means committee member, charles rangel. i am doing much better based on experience based on seniority and the ability to get
passed, the administration said the stimulus would keep the unemployment rate around 7%. once again we re at 9.5% and the administration is projecting 9.8% by the end of this year. allison, we need private sector jobs. private sector jobs. anything in the report on how we can get that going? reporter: well, exactly. roemer is going to be testifying on capitol hill later today to talk about $100 billion from the stimulus money that s partnered with another $300 billion from the private sector to try to spur that job creation if the private sector. the administration is also planning a series of events to highlight the stimulus effect on the private sector. in michigan tomorrow there is going to be a groundbreaking for a plant that will make batteries for electric cars. i ll tell you what, michigan really needs some good news in the jobs department because the michigan unemployment rate there is at 13.7%. that s the second-worst in the nation. we really need those batteries, those